(A/N)- It seems like these chapters just keep getting longer and longer. Did anyone notice my little chapter title scheme? "Hear no evil; see no evil; speak no evil." Thanks again for all the feedback, it makes me all warm and fuzzy inside to know that people are actually reading and enjoying my story. I think I'm gonna end up making this story a tad shorter than I first intended though merely because I think it will be a bit too drawn out otherwise, and I have bazillions of ideas for other fics that I want to start on but don't have the time to write.

Also, for some reason, every time I upload something to see my word count or see how a story looks in format, it seems that believes I also want to update. So I apologize to those that saw my fic up a week ago and thought it was updated. I'm really truly sorry.

Disclaimer: If I owned Kenshin, he (1.) wouldn't have died like that cries (2.) would have had many more children with Kaoru (3.) would have had a great relationship with ALL his kids (4.) would be taller. Sorry, I know it's supposed to be comical and ironic, but I just wish he were taller since I'm tall and... yeah.

A Bittersweet Elegy

Chapter 5: Speak No Evil

"Truly, to tell lies is dishonorable; but when the truth entails tremendous ruin, to speak dishonorably is pardonable."

-Sophocles (Creusa)

Katsura Matsuyo rubbed his temple gently as he sat behind his large, imported desk and watched the shadowed figure in front of him. An eerie sort of silence passed between the two as employer and assassin waited for the other to break the building tension that foreshadowed an ill report. Katsura decided after a few more moments wasted to take the initiative himself and raised his gaze to meet the blank, dark one of his companion.

"You killed the woman didn't you?" he asked quelling the anger he felt rising unbidden within him at the thought.

Kenshin shifted on his feet, the anxiety in his body language speaking fully and clearly to those who had learned how to read him after years of being in his presence. "No."

A thick eyebrow arched on Katsura's face while he registered this new information. "Then she's alive and well?"

Hesitation. "Yes."

"And you have the information about where the Shiminkakumei have been hiding themselves," he rose from his seat and stepped toward a cabinet behind him, depositing a file back into its allotted space. "It obviously isn't where we've been guessing. Tell me what you found out."

With a stiff jaw and a nervous feeling settling in the pit of his stomach, Kenshin answered, "I don't know."

Katsura visibly stiffened, his shoulders straightening his back. "Come again?"

"I was unable to attain any information during the mission," Kenshin answered averting his eyes below the cover of his thick, red bangs.

"Mm." The elder man turned mindfully keeping his gaze on the busy platform of his desk all the while as he reclaimed his seat leaning back into its plushness and fixing his arms across the armrests.

"What happened, Himura?"

The question was tense and forboding holding no room for loose answers, not that the hitokiri planned on giving any. An indirect explanation was just as poignant as a direct one sometimes and afforded less intimate details which he was feeling evasive towards.

"The woman is alive and well, just as you instructed me to leave her," he said slowly watching for any play of emotion to cross Katsura's face before continuing. The man just watched him in stoic silence. "However, just as I had killed the last of the unnecessary officers- the ones I did not plan on questioning- the woman saw me."

Again he waited as his employer's stare fixed irritably on him for a moment before looking away out the window as he turned his chair. "Go on."

"She fled. I pursued. I suppose it's that simple," he answered as though it was obvious.

"And yet she's still alive."

"...hai."

"And she saw you kill?"

"...hai."

"And she knows you were alone?"

"...hai."

"And she saw your face?"

A pause of silence deafened by the monotonous ticking of the solitary clock on Katsura's desk filled the room. "I don't think so."

"Why not?" Matsuyo stood turning the corner of his desk to sit leisurely on its front platform.

"I believe she would have had slightly different reactions had she seen me," he nearly whispered, lowering his gaze once more behind the confines of his bangs wishing to be relieved of his companion's disconcerting stare.

Katsura nearly started at the vague reply rubbing a lone hand against his jaw line roughly before allowing it to collapse once more into the space of his lap. "I don't understand. Why would she have reacted differently to you?" His gaze narrowed slightly, his thick brows furrowing in the center awaiting his explanation.

Thinking quickly, Kenshin answered, his tone remotely distant as he practically breathed his words out in desolute constitution. "Have you ever looked death in the face with no object or shadow to conceal it?" He glanced at the man as he remained motionless silently urging him to continue. "To see the face of death, your own death, is such an experience that haunts every unconscious thought of a person's mind to the extent of complete paralysis, to the extent of almost serene calmness. It's an obvious expression, one I never saw her portray."

He watched as Katsura nodded vaguely before reaching for the clock on his desk and quickly checking the time. "I suppose you gave that as reason enough to avoid killing her."

Kenshin nodded averting his eyes out the window to the chilling silhouettes that danced against a black backdrop.

A short chuckle resonated in the room as his employer continued. "And I suppose you even felt so guilty as to leave the man you were planning on questioning as her guide back."

No reply.

"Mm," he chortled briefly under his breath glancing at the shorter man across the room. "You always were a good man, Himura. Such a pity. Even if she didn't see your face, I can't afford to have her wandering around. Finish the job. Tonight. I expect they'll be coming into the city soon enough if they started out soon after your encounter. I predict they'll be heading to the Kyoto General Defences building just on the edge of town. Meet them there and finish it."

He gave a dismissive wave of his hand as he once again stood and circled his desk to situate himself once more in the large, plush seat nestled behind a short stack of paperwork. He didn't even need to turn his head to know that in the next instant, his hitokiri was gone.

Her head lolled forward suddenly knocking her from her fitful doze. They had been traveling all day and far past sunset into the evening Kaoru noticed as the faint lights of the distant fort began to draw nearer to her fatigued eyes. Neither she nor Natsuo had slept since they'd first started and her pity for the older man only grew as the time and distance leered on; her riding and day-dreaming astride a calm, composed gelding while her companion carefully stayed on alert watching the surrounding brush with an eerie eye, his mount constantly cutting and dancing temperately. She'd offered to switch horses with him more than once and each time he had resisted her insisting on not forcing such a spooked animal upon her. He had even tried to persuade her to fully lean upon her horse's neck and sleep assuring her he would keep the horses calm and be on alert for danger at all times.

Now with the fortress within sight, she was glad she had denied him or she may still have been slumbering against her mount's withers. The great expanse of time awake also afforded her the perfect opportunity to think. Most assasins feared the idea of leaving a witness alive, and she fully understood why of course. Witnesses were almost as perilous as traitors. For the time being she posed no threat to him, but the moment she came into custody of more influential authorities, her life would no longer be of little value. Already she was as good as dead, she thought vaguely to herself, he had said it himself.

Assasins. Kenshin was once an assasin, she remembered. In fact, he was the ultimate assasin, the revered -and completely feared- Battousai. A hitokiri by nature as they would call him, yet his true personality showed none of the attributes his rumours and legends portrayed of a killing expert. Kenshin had been Kenshin; sweet, haunted Kenshin.

And she loved him.

Even through death she loved him as she realized she always would. A bittersweet smile rose to her lips as she imagined her life two years ago plagued with a ruckus-filled home with friends she still kept in touch with, and she remembered all the trials they had endured together and sometimes for one another. One particular instance stood out drastically in her mind eating at the very recesses of her memory. A tired, distraught youth to be exact whom harbored the utmost hate for her precious rurouni, and very warrantedly too.

Enishi.

He had been driven mad by his sister's death at Kenshin's hands and her presence in his home seemed to invoke a sort of solemn acceptance within the young man to understand Tomoe's death. Perhaps many madmen and assasins held similar attributes of weakness. It was obviously the only reason why she was still alive though she doubted how long that fact would remain untarnished.

Something had been triggered in that man she realized as she remembered the somber glow in his golden stare as he issued her partial leave. Had the circumstances been extremely different, she thought, she may have stood and actually given the man a comforting embrace or a few soothing words. She'd seen that same light so many times before in her own rurouni's gaze: fear, anguish, regret. He regretted something, and because of that he had been unable to kill her.

Maybe he had suffered the consequences of a departed lover similar to the narrative she had been told by Kenshin. An unforgivable mistake and death by one's own hands. Torturous. She could never even begin to imagine such an excruciating experience.

She sighed softly to herself glancing upward at the tops of the overhanging trees as a few ravens scattered from their lofty perches. Ahead her horse's ears pricked at the movement, his eyes wavering between the forward, dirt road and the flitting shadows in the forest beside them. Wearily, she averted her drooping eyes to the side where the gelding had often glanced peering nonchalantly into the thick foliage. The slight glint of metal caught her eye and she drew in a hasty breathe as an onyx figure charged from the cover of the brush.

Kenshin stalked carefully beside the two mounted riders mindful to keep his figure low and out of their immediate sight. Should they have eagerly searched the perimeter around them, he would have easily been detected as a mass of crimson hair spilling against the blank, dark backdrop. The woman was there lulled agaist her saddle and fighting against fatigue as the officer warily kept watch on the area ahead waiting for those distant lights of the fort to draw nearer. Had either of them paid any attention to their horses' reactions they would have already been aware of his impending presence.

Absently, he watched the girl as her head involuntarily sagged forward against its weight until she quickly caught herself before she capsized her position on the horse. She was due to fall fast asleep any moment now and he knew it though they were easily within eight minutes walking distance from the fort, two if the aforementioned were able to spur their horses into a much brisker pace. Lord, she reminded him of her... the gentle cascade of her ebony hair and the soft, molded features of her delicate brow and jaw. Her lips even formed the same imperceptible "o" when she sat idly watching nothing and yet taking everything in one moment at a time. Lord, he really did miss her. He missed her so much that even his targets were begin to take her very shape and form.

He sighed. He had already reminisced too much and now his focus was wavering. The job needed to be finished. It was time to act. Deftly, he ventured in front of the small, sauntering party and sat in waiting accidentally startling a group of cackling fowl rested in the bows above him. Then he watched with calculating eyes as they advanced and he fixed his target readily on the leader, the man astride the prancing horse whose eyes refused to leave the area ahead of him to search the perimeter. His muscles bunched in sinewy apprehension as they neared.

And then he struck... quickly, blindy... as the horses reared and dislodged their riders before galloping into the immense darkness of the woods toward the scorchingly distant lights of the fort beyond.

A lone, young man stood against the parlor columns situated outside the large, affluent Kyoto General Defenses building watching the sparse glimmer of the distant stars. His dark brown hair swayed gently in a passing breeze ruffling it from its usual, uniform combing pattern and sweeping it across his soft, light brown eyes. He was a handsome man, stately in stature and well developed in build neither thin nor brutely, not tall nor short with the visage of defined cheek bones and angular features with only the barest hint of a harsh browline. Both educationally well versed and handsome, he was the epitome of charm among the ladies and the republic.

In fact, at the present moment he awaited the arrival of his lady though she was not due to arrive until the following day.

A comforting hand placed itself atop his shoulder and offered him a soothing squeeze. "She'll be here safe and sound tomorrow. Just hold out until tomorrow, Iwasaki-san."

He nodded slightly glancing back at the source of the new voice and expressing the barest of smiles. "I suppose you're right, sir, but I still can't help but be impatient. I haven't seen her in so long and I have so many things to discuss with her."

"Hai, I know," the older man agreed stepping up beside his younger companion and folding his arms behind his back, his thick, gray mustache twitching ever so slightly at the corner. "I wish you luck."

"Arigato, I appreciate your support."

The man chuckled slightly giving Iwasaki a short nod before turning to enter the building once more. "Come in soon. You'll only catch a cold out here waiting."

"Aa..." He shifted uncomfortably on the balls of his feet still surveying the space before him beyond the tall, metal gate and into the forest.

"Don't worry, she'll come," came the disembodied voice behind him.

He gave a faint grin, turning his head to meet the other man's gaze. "Thanks again, Yamagata-san."

His only response was a brief nod before the governor turned and walked away with short, clipped steps down the tiled corridor.

Iwasaki sighed returning his gaze once more to the outlining silhouettes of the black woods and the shy twinkle of the overhanging stars that sparkled faintly against their dead pallet. The muffled clatter of distant hooves instantly grabbed his attention as the slight rhythm slowly drew closer to the vicinity until a pair of geldings stood frothing and prancing at the barred gate pawing and snorting for notice.

"You," he said commandingly pointing at one of the guards situated just outside his positioned balcony. "Bring in those horses."

The man acted immediately jogging quickly up to the gate and leading the pair of barren horses into the courtyard and back to his superior, holding them as the man carefully surveyed them from a distance. Carefully, Iwasaki descended the lateral staircase and made his way beside the first steed noticing the manner in which he had been hastily saddled and attached with close to no necessities before moving around to the second horse whom had calmed considerably more than his counterpart.

Again the tack was sloppily fastened hardly calling for a safe riding environment though the cause for such immediate actions was unknown. He checked the girth noticing its alarming looseness and the way the saddle had slid sideways almost completely upon the horse's ribcage. He undid the girth and righted the saddle atop the horse's spine not even flinching when the horse threw up its head and shook its full, sorrel coat. Only when he drew his hands back did he notice the silky texture crafted atop the pommel. His fingers immediately grasped it, his eyes widening in disbelief as he traced his pads against the midnight blue ribbon he held delicately in his hand.

Kaoru's ribbon.

His brown eyes shot upward darting amongst the shadows and silhouettes that played particular pictures in the surrounding areas giving no hint or clue of any advancing sources, only a dreary feeling of foreboding that loomed speculatively above the heads on the men standing outside the General Defenses building.

"Saddle your horses!" he shouted to the small group of men that had gathered around him at the approach of the frantic horses. "Hurry!"

At once the men dispursed rushing toward the nearby stable and grabbing random horses and tack. Iwasaki grabbed the sorrel in front of him, his fist still clutching at the blue ribbon that had once been tied loosely around the saddle's pommel. He then began to quickly fasten the buckles and gear before casting himself quickly astride the gelding, another officer mirroring his actions atop the less mild horse and they only waited a moment until the thunder of distant hooves met them from behind before racing out the gate and into the stony night.

She was nearly paralyzed with fear the moment before she even came to terms with her frail body awkwardly meeting the ground. He was here. The demon had already come to finish his duties with her. Soon, so very soon. Her eyes shown with terrified tears as she tried to make out the outline of the stiff figure lowly advancing in the distance toward another form that quickly scurried backward from its place on the ground, the coppery scent of blood filling her nose as she realized that Natsuo was injured and about to meet his end. Her throat was dry and scratchy as she thought to scream out her fears to him, but no words would formulate in her starch, languid mouth.

And then the faint glint of a sword being raised drifted into her sight and that gut wrenching fear was encompassed by the dull pang of sorrow as the item was swung and a fresh, muffled cry was issued just beyond the erect figure that held the descended, dripping blade. She wanted to cry, but the tears refused to inch from her disbelieving eyes.

Even as the soft rustle of fabric began to draw nearer to her prostrate figure laying prone in the dusty expanse of the desolate road, she could not manage a sound, not an action besides the fixated stare she kept on the crumpled form of her companion lying a few yards away. It wasn't until she heard the feet stop only a length away from her and the tingling dust her assailant's footsteps created tickle her nose that she was aware of another being watching her methodically behind carefully hooded eyes. Only then did the seriousness of the situation register in her mind and the brunt of her emotions hit her squarely in the face as her jaw gawked and yearned to produce some sort of sound.

And she screamed an agonizing cry that would have brought many men to the basis of pity for the resigned young woman who seemed really no more than a girl, a child even, caught in the uproar of some heinous crime that failed to even concern her; and it hurt so very, very deeply.

"Why?" she cried, tears slowly seeping from her eyes as she sobbed in the dirt. "He wasn't a threat to you." Her accusations flew before she even had the chance to think her words over. "He didn't have to die. It was only supposed to be me... only me!"

"It had to be done," he whispered barely loud enough for her to hear and sounding more as though he was trying to assure himself than make her understand. "He would have died last night anyway if it weren't for you."

"No," she cried curling into her sitting form and hugging her arms to herself. "He could have lived. He had a family."

He swallowed hard watching keenly as her defiant figure slowly began to wilt before his very eyes. "It's too late now," he said slowly raising his sword arm the bereft of degrees from the ground and watching the dull drip of blood slide from the tip to the waiting ground below as he anticipated her next words.

"And I suppose now you'll kill me, too," she began turning her head to meet his gaze with all the temerity she could muster within her shaken and crested form. "You'll kill me even though I've done nothing to you."

He hesitated a second before drawing his sword carefully above his head. "Yes, I will. It is my duty."

She merely stared at him a moment, her deep azure eyes grasping for his description in the placid obscurity of the darkness, but all she could conjure were the deep reflections of pallid gold sifting in a maze of stale gray and the outline of his long hair as it casually swayed in the passing breeze.

"And what is your duty?" she nearly spat inching faintly back from him as her fingers grasped for something in the dirt road only to clasp around the jagged form of a fair sized rock.

"To carry out my assignments as an assassin," he parried taking note of her slowly retreating figure and glad for the cover of night that hid both her finer features from his acute eyes and the majority of his figure from her own.

Kaoru sneered in mock disgust trying to hide the pity she felt for this man back in the recesses of her mind all the while careful to support her undaunted front. She would show death no remorse as he would show her no mercy. "You didn't answer me," she nearly whispered gazing back at him with a storming expression. "You merely rephrased the definition of duty. What is your duty as an assasin?"

"It doesn't matter," he replied huskily. "It won't matter to you in a moment." He thought for an instant noting the offended glint that sprang to her eyes at his comment. "But if you insist on knowing, my duty has never changed. I want to bring peace to my country and I do it the only way an assasin like me knows how."

"In death," she calmly continued, her expression softening by the smallest of calibers. "None of you are very different I suppose."

In the dark, she faintly made out the motion of his shoulders lifting as he shrugged. "Maybe, but for now, it doesn't matter, there can be no witnesses."

Her sapphire eyes seemed to glimmer momentarily in understanding before she closed them at the sound of his words, her head lowering to rest against her chest. "I suppose not," she mused never lifting her head as she distantly heard his sleeves shift minutely as his weapon was raised the least of degrees to make for a clean strike. She could almost laugh bitterly to herself as she uttered her last words to her assailant. "It's ironic though... I always believed that a sword was meant to protect, not kill."

That philosophy, he had heard it before and it had haunted his dreams many sleepless nights in the past few years. 'A sword that protects... it was the style my father taught, the style my father passed on to me,' he remembered hearing her say as she practiced and trained Yahiko. His mouth suddenly ran dry and his throat became bare and scratchy in his breaths as he fought to breathe through either his nose or mouth, but the air only came in staggared pants that rasped against the backs of his teeth.

The sword that protects.

A minute wore on and neither being moved, one awaiting death and the other pleading for the ability to deal it out. But death did not come and in the eerie chill of the languid night Kaoru could very nearly feel the pulse of the man in front of her reverberate through the very ground they tread upon. Still he did not move as the minute glanced on toward two and she began to wonder as she opened her eyes and raised them slightly toward the motionless figure before her. He was still only watching her, but perhaps that was enough to forestall his movement in his eyes.

"You're shaking," she whispered so softly, so casually that he nearly retched from his own self loathing at what he was pushing himself to do. Again her voice came this time fractionally clearer, her head lifting slightly more to peer at him thoughtfully through the darkness. "You're trembling."

He took a hasty step back, his body betraying his actions as he forced himself to remain intimidating and refrain from dropping his katana.

She openly stared at him, her eyes confused and curiously sympathetic. "You don't really mean to kill me do you?" she asked hesitantly watching his body closely.

"Of course I do," he sneered, the quiver in his voice unmistakable as he silently cursed his sudden fear.

"But you don't want to... do you?" her voice broke off in a whimsical whisper as her hand slowly drew itself to her fluttering and aggrivated stomach.

He released a ragged breath sputtering in practically a half sob that was neither a cry nor a laugh. "It doesn't matter!" he very nearly yelled grasping for his slipping composure. "Once a hitokiri, always a hitokiri!!" he recited forcing his arm down and drawing the blade at an alarming rate toward her prone skull, but she just sat there and watched never flinching and slowly drawing her eyes shut and softly uttering in a whisper almost imperceptible to his keen ears:

"...Kenshin."

And in the moment it took her to finish the last syllable she felt the sweep of air rush by her face as the blade inadvertantly changed its course and a dull cry issued from the man in front of her an instant later as her eyes danced open and stared in awe at the hitokiri who now crouched a few yards away from her nursing a gash on his left leg.

She didn't know what had forced her to say that or more importantly why it had assuaged her attacker's strike, but in the wary calm that accompanied the passing of the storm, she felt relief flood her as she made out the barest of trembles from the assasin sitting disposed in front of her as they watched each other's outline in the slightest forms of light given by the passing of the awning stars, and then he spoke, his voice lower than it had been before and ragged in broken breaths.

"No, I don't want to kill you."

Despite herself, Kaoru smiled softly and almost invisibly in the placid darkness. "I know."

She barely caught the sound of his quaking breath and in a moment of empathy began to reach a hand out to the strange man whom no longer posed her any threat, his sword discarded far off to his side in the gravel, just as the distant clamber of militant, beating hooves met their ears simultaneously accompanied by the frenzied cries of several men searching for fallen comrades.

The hitokiri threw his head back to glare at the on coming forces and in habit moved to reclaim his sword. Seeing his intentions, Kaoru likewise acted on instinct wishing to preserve the safety of her advancing friends from this fatal man as well as the well being of the haunted person himself. Grasping the rock she still fingered in her hand, she thrust her arm forward without thought or aim hurtling the stone at the assasin and deftly knocking him in the head with excessive force.

There was a dull cry as the man jerked forward upon impact before falling limply onto the ground face huddled into his thick hair and gi. She almost sighed in relief not worrying about the possible consequences leaving an immobilized hitokiri could have on him and herself. As the battalion drew nearer she crawled beside her attacker, a man whom her fear for had dwindled considerably within the past few minutes. The approaching torches lit his coloring to her eyes and she noted his auburn hair with great interest. It was darker than Kenshin's, but still curiously conveyed the same sense of death as his had when he reverted to his hitokiri persona. She hadn't had the chance to even begin brushing his hair from his face when strong arms urgently lifted her from her prostrate position on the ground and held her against a toned, warm chest.

"Kaoru?" a deep, worried voice sounded close to her ear shaking her from her reveries and relaying her back to the present.

"Iwasaki-san!!" she breathed in relief returning the embrace upon recognition only causing her rescuer to hold her all the tighter.

"Daijobu?" he asked anxiously releasing her slightly and going over her figure quickly to assess the damages.

"I'm fine," she almost laughed as she hugged him back to her. "I'm ok."

Iwasaki eagerly continued to hold her glad for the feel of her safely being in his arms as he smelled the faint traces of aloeswood and plum blossoms radiating in her hair. He glanced at the dead body lying a few feet away and then the unconscious form of another man lying practically at their feet, a bloody sword mere inches from his finger tips.

"Are you sure he didn't hurt you?" he asked her scowling at the heedless person and nudging him roughly with his toe.

"Don't do that," she softly scolded gazing awkwardly at the man as well seeing traces of blood seep from his gashed leg and the small dent in the back of his head. "He didn't hurt me."

"What did he do?" Iwasaki demanded his bloodlust growing at the thought of his Kaoru being harmed.

"Nothing!" she answered hastily noting that her silence would only issue the man's death. When her companion's raging gaze came to question her further she felt her jaw working to formulate a plausible explanation for his presence and upon finding one, she slowly began. "He saved me."

"He... saved you?" Iwasaki queried waiting for a hint of uncertainty to pass her expression, but she remained steadfast.

"Yes, we were attacked and he saved me before the assasin could get to me. And then you came," she emphasized lying her head against his chest assuringly; "and the assasin left."

Her explanation seemed to satiate him as his hard, brown eyes softened considerably and he swept her small form into his arms carrying her back to his horse. "Alright then. You," he delegated nodding at a few officers standing idly around Natsuo's disposed body. "Pick that man up and bring him back to the fort. Make sure you call a doctor and have his wounds cleaned and examined." He glanced back down at Kaoru briefly before adding, "He's a hero."

She hardly heard though, for the moment she was assured that the man's safety would be arranged she allowed herself to fall into a fitless slumber all through the journey back and even still through the night. She was somehow quite proud. Possibly, she had the chance to change yet another man's life, to transform another assasin, to accomplish something important...

For Kenshin.

Next Chapter:

Melancholy Joy

(A/N)- Bwahaha... I'm fairly pleased with how I've set this up now. Heh heh, I'm sure ya'll will enjoy it. The chapter was a bit... melodramatic I guess, but it couldn't really be helped. Anyway, I'm a review hound that feds religiously off of reviews. That means (ideas)+(review responses) me not quitting the story as I have a tendency to do. I love you all though for reading and I hope and pray to be able to get the next chapter out soon though I've come to another section where I don't have any planning done whatsoever. Outlining time. Till next time... REVIEW!!

REVIEWER RESPONSES:

- Sen-chan, Pyro Raven, Steph-chan, Misha, Katie, Espi, May, cat, PianZoe, The Girl Who Cried Oro, Jewelz- Thank you ALL so so much for reviewing, I greatly appreciate it!!

- Bokken of Doom- What you don't like the idea of Kenshin with facial hair? lol me too. I'll get rid of it though, I just have a certain purpose for it that I'm waiting to follow through with.

- Ariel- No, Kaoru didn't lose her memory. She doesn't recognize Kenshin because she couldn't see him because it was too dark and his back was facing whatever light she could have used to see him. Plus he now has a beard and he's hardly said anything so she can't recognize his voice, especially since she hasn't heard him for two years and he's speaking in different tones than she's used to hearing from Kenshin. Hope that cleared things up.

- Linay- ...wow. I'm star-struck. Ya know that feeling you get when you meet a celebrity or something along those lines... yeah I'm feelin' that right about now. It's not everyday that your favorite author reviews your work and says it's awesome no less. Thank you so, so, so, so much I love you and I hope you continue to read and review!!

- Psychotic Tanuki- Heh heh, I enjoy writing out his pyschoness very much. It's rather entertaining. In the next chapter he actually comes to terms with her being alive and she'll be finding out about our dear rurouni... later. Mwahahaha... lol

- Kouri- rolls down hill holding her cookie jars trying to escape her chocolate crazed family. MINE, MY CYBER COOKIES!! lol, I'm really happy that you liked the chapter since it was insanely difficult to write. It really makes me feel better.Phantoms of reality... I like that wordage, and no, the truth will indeed come out in time.

- Strawberry Shortcake of Doom- I got this chapter out faster than the other just for you!! Thanks for reviewing and please stop shaving my Kenshin draws on little hairs with a sharpie He'll be needing that beard soon . lol

- Angrybee- Oh she'll definently be pissed when everything is pieced together, I assure you that much. Thanks for everything!!

Thanks again to all those who are reading and please, please, please, pleaaaasssse REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!!